Handwoven ethnic wear label
Restyling a Handwoven Label's Shopify Theme Without Breaking the Next Update
How we gave a handwoven ethnic wear label a heritage look on Shopify's Horizon theme, why the first update attempt was rolled back, and how the update was rebuilt so it changes nothing the client approved.
Worried a theme update will wipe your customisations? Get a free theme check.The problem
A small handwoven ethnic wear label on Shopify wanted its store to look like its own brand, with its typeface and colours, instead of a stock theme. The catch with any theme work is the next update: changes made inside the theme's core files are the first thing an update throws away.
What we found
The live theme was named Horizon 4.1.3, but the version its code actually reported was 3.5.1. Newer Horizon releases changed how colours are stored, so updating this store was a migration, not a button press.
When the client ran an update, it proved the point: the update kept every new file we had added but dropped the small hooks that had been placed inside core files, taking the buy-button additions, parts of the SEO markup, the page headings and the low-stock counter with it.
What we changed
The heritage restyle was built from new sections, blocks and snippets: a footer marquee, a made-to-order promise that appears on sold-out pieces, a shipping and returns accordion drawn from the store's published policies, a styling consultation card, and the brand typeface loaded across the site without touching the theme's font settings. 73 product descriptions were rewritten, and four titles were corrected to match their photos, with new URLs and redirects.
The first attempts at the 4.2 update kept regressing, so we recommended putting the client-approved build back live rather than leaving a broken store up while we fixed it. The update was then redone as a separate copy: every custom file carried across unchanged, the text and footer colours were re-applied from the live settings, and the parts that had depended on core files were rebuilt as blocks.
Where it stands
The client-approved build is live, with the made-to-order promise, the policy accordion and the corrected product URLs all checked on the store. The 4.2 update is built with no core files edited, and full-page comparisons against the live store at desktop and phone width differ by under 3%, apart from the moving marquee. It goes live when the client publishes it.
Which parts of a theme are safe to change, and how we prove an update changed nothing, is the part we keep.
The store is described rather than named. Every figure on this page is one we measured on it.